The '80s are not without love for the Cabazon Dinosaurs

Kevin Wuench

Published

Oh those Cabazon Dinosaurs. Today they mark their third visit on Lost and Found with the video for Tonio K.'s Without Love.

Without Love makes the fourth ‘80s video I can remember that feature the Cabazon Dinosaurs, that are located off of California I-10 near Palm Springs. They appear briefly in the Tears for Fears hit Everybody Wants To Rule The World and have also appeared in less familiar videos like Night Ranger's Sing Me Away and Rubber Rodeo's Anywhere With You.

Besides their appearance in the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure, the Cabazon Dinos even made the album cover Tonio K's 1988 album cover of Notes From The Lost Civilization. Tonio K (born Steven Krikorian) may not be familiar to most music fans, but his album Romeo Unchained was one of the soundtracks to my life in 1986, but sadly, no videos are out there for that album. Without Love is another solid track from Tonio K. and the dinosaurs of Dinny and Mr. Rex get plenty of screen time in the video. The filming of the video in 1988 coincided with the death that year of the Cabazon Dinosaur creator Claude Bell, who was working on the addition of a third dinosaur - a Wooly Mammoth - before passing away.

Though his output was steady, Tonio K. was a critic's favorite who never sold many albums. His songwriting has paid the bills over the years with his most popular song being the ballad Love Is that hit No. 3 in 1993 for Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight. His songs have appeared on soundtracks for Real Genius, Summer School, Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter Is Dead and Van Wilder plus he also won a Grammy in 2005 for his work with the odd pairing of Burt Bacharach and Dr. Dre.

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